Proceedings of the 4th AUN/SEED-Net Regional Conference on Biotechnology Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University and Burapha University, Thailand January 25-27, 2012 1 Method Applicable to Characterize Various Biomass Species in their Chemical Composition Harifara Rabemanolontsoa, Shiro Saka Department of Socio-Environmental Energy Science, Graduate School of Energy Science, Kyoto University, Yoshida-honmachi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan Corresponding author. Tel/Fax: + 81-75-753-4738, email: saka@energy.kyoto-u.ac.jp Abstract A quantitative method applicable for various biomass species to determine their chemical constituents was explored, based on the widely used wood analytical method. Wood analytical method was found to be applicable to wood but not entirely applicable to different biomass species. It was discovered that remaining inorganics, lignin but also protein in holocellulose and Klason lignin of non-woody biomass determined by wood analytical method caused overestimation of the chemical composition. It was, thus, demonstrated that by incorporating protein and starch determinations, by ash-correcting the Klason lignin and holocellulose and also by protein-correcting Klason lignin and holocellulose of high protein content species, reliable summative results that enable comparison between different types of biomass materials were achieved. Such newly revised analytical method applicable to various biomass species was proposed in this study. Keywords: quantitative method, biomass, lignocellulosic, chemical composition 1. Introduction The chemical composition of biomass is known to affect biotechnology as well as the resulting bioproducts. For the expected future expansion of biorefinery, it is of high importance to reveal and to compare the chemical composition of a wide range of biomass species. Even though several data were reported in the literature on the chemical composition of some biomass species, methods and basis of those studied were different. Given such inconsistency in the methods, comparison of those existing data would not be suitable. Therefore, there is a need to settle a common method applicable to any biomass species. Several efforts [1-3] were accomplished in the past to settle a universal method to determine the chemical components of biomass species. However, evidence with reasonable explanation to support the choice of a method or the addition of a given step in one procedure has never been provided. As wood is quantitatively predominant among biomass species [4], the method to determine its chemical composition is well established [5-7]. However, wood analytical procedure is not necessarily adequate for other kinds of biomass resources, especially for the herbaceous ones such as wheat straw and rice husk mostly used as feed and forage. Their chemical characterization is usually made, based on crop analysis for animal feeding, and terms and methods used to characterize herbaceous plants [8-10] differ from those to characterize wood [5]. Thus, in order to determine biomass chemical composition on the same basis, an analytical method applicable to various biomass species has been studied in this work. For that purpose, widely used wood analytical method was discussed in its advantages and disadvantages, and a revised new analytical procedure applicable for different biomass species was established.